for if he attempted to do his duty he would
be shot, even more readily than I should.

Mr. Morley retorted:--

'He is the leader of the Irish nation.'

'I admit it,' I replied, 'and he is the only man you can make terms
with.'

'How?' says he.

'You had better ask him,' says I, 'to nominate some foreign potentate to
appoint commissioners who will say to Mr. Parnell, "Let Ireland pay her
share of the national debt and buy out every loyal person who wishes to
leave the country," and then, if Mr. Parnell says, "We are not able to
do that," let them retort, "We will then disfranchise you, for this
humbug has been going on long enough."'

'That's about it, according to your lights,' replied Mr. Morley.

Was I not right?

It is a singular fact that Ulster and Alsace-Lorraine have about the
same acreage--5,322,334 to 3,586,560--and about the same
population--1,581,357 to 1,719,470. The French and Germans are each
willing to spend a hundred millions of money and half a million lives,
the one to recover, the other to retain, the province, and yet Mr.
Gladstone proposed, not only to abandon Ulster, but to put it under the
rule of the people the Ulsterites hate most on earth.

It is also remarkable that at the time of the Union the population of
Belfast was 35,000, and Dublin 250,000. Now Belfast is 335,000, while
Dublin remains at a quarter of a million. Belfast, in point of customs,
is the third largest city in the British dominions, coming next after
London and Liverpool, whilst it is the finest shipbuilding town in the
world.

Yet its inhabitants were to be sold as though they were African slaves,
for the sole purpose of getting votes for the Liberal Government.

I was one day invited by Froude to come to his home to argue out the
Irish question with Mr. Jacob Bright and Mr. John Morley.

I counted on having Mr. Froude on my side, knowing his strong views, but
as host he would not interfere. However, Miss Cobbe was there, and to my
mind was equal to any of the company. With her on my side, I flatter
myself we were too many for the others; but the worst of all arguments
is that the arguing rarely serves any purpose except to make either
party more obstinate.

I knew John Bright very well.

He was far and away the most honest man of all the Liberal party, and he
fully realised the fact that a visible concentration of property and
universal suffrage could not exist together. He was therefore anxious to
enlarge